Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-g8jcs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-28T18:17:46.007Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

The phosphatic chalks and hardgrounds of Boxford and Winterbourne, Berkshire – two tectonically controlled facies in the late Coniacian to early Campanian (Cretaceous) of southern England

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 May 2009

I. Jarvis
Affiliation:
Department of Geology, The University, Glasgow G12 8QQ
P. Woodroof
Affiliation:
Esso Exploration and Production U.K., 50 Stratton Street, London W1X 6AU

Summary

The litho-and biostratigraphy of Boxford quarry and Winterbourne pit are described in detail. Boxford quarry displays a section through parallel bedded soft white chalks and hardgrounds which dip at 25° SSE, overlain by a chalk mélange composed of displaced and deformed blocks of hardground surrounded by calcarenitic chalk. The succession is of late Coniacian to mid Santonian age and is interpreted as being the result of intra-Upper Cretaceous tectonic activity. Winterbourne pit exposes a late Santonian to early Campanian sequence of poorly phosphatic chalks and hardgrounds containing an abundant macrofauna. This deposit is the same age as, and in part similar to, the classic phosphatic chalks of northern France, to which it is compared. However, it is best explained as resulting from a continuation of the abnormal tectonic and bottom-current conditions indicated by the older, atypical chalks of the Boxford area.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1981

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bromley, R. G. 1975(a). Trace fossils at omission surfaces. ln The Study of Trace Fossils (ed. Frey, R. W.), pp. 399428. New York: Springer-Verlag.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bromley, R. G. 1975(b). Comparative analysis of fossil and recent echinoid bioerosion. Palaeontology 18 725–39.Google Scholar
Brydone, R. M. 1912. The Stratigraphy of the Chalk of Hants. London: Dulau.Google Scholar
Cayeux, L. 1939. Les phosphates de chaux sédimentaires de France I: France métropolitaine. Études des gîtes minéraux de la France. Paris: Imprimerie Nationale.Google Scholar
Cooper, M. R. 1977. Eustacy during the Cretaceous: its implications and importance. Palaeogeogr. Palaeoclimatol. Palaeoecol. 22 160.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ernst, G. 1964. Ontogenie, Phylogenie und Stratigraphie der Belemnitengattung Gonioteuthis Bayle aus dem nordwestdeutschen Santon/Campan. Fortschr. Geol. Rheinld. Westf. 7 113–74.Google Scholar
Gale, A. S. 1980. Penecontemporaneous folding, sedimentation and erosion in Campanian Chalk near Portsmouth, England. Sedimentology 27 137–51.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Håkansson, E., Bromley, R. G. & Perch-Nielsen, K. 1974. Maastrichtian chalk of north-west Europe–a pelagic shelf sediment. In Pelagic Sediments: on Land and Under the Sea (ed. Hsü, K. J. & Jenkyns, H. C.), pp. 211–33. Spec. Publ. Int. Ass. Sedimentol. 1.Google Scholar
Hancock, J. M. 1975. The petrology of the Chalk. Proc. Geol. Ass. 86 499535.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hancock, J. M. & Scholle, P. A. 1975. Chalk of the North Sea. In Petroleum and the Continental Shelf of Europe, vol. 1 (ed. Woodland, A. W.), pp. 413–25. Barking: Applied Science.Google Scholar
Hawkins, H. L. 1924. Excursion to Newbury and Boxford. Proc. Geol. Ass. 35 395400.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hawkins, H. L. 1942. Some episodes in the geological history of the south of England. Q. Jl. geol. Soc.London 98, XLIX–LXX.Google Scholar
Hébert, E. 1875. Ondulations de la craie dans le Bassin de Paris. Bull. Soc. Géol. Fr. 19 903–13.Google Scholar
Jarvis, I. 1980. The initiation of phosphatic chalk sedimentation–the Senonian of the Anglo-Paris Basin. In Marine phosphorites (ed. Bentor, Y. K.), SEPM Spec. Pub. 29.Google Scholar
Juignet, P. & Kennedy, W. J. 1974. Structures sédimentaires et mode d'accumulation de la Craie du Turonian supérieur et du Sénonian du Pays de Caux. Bull. BRGM 1 1974, 1947.Google Scholar
Jukes-Browne, A. J. 1908. The geology of the country around Andover. Mem. Geol. Surv. England Wales, 283. London: HMSO.Google Scholar
Jukes-Browne, A. J. & Hill, W. 1904. The Cretaceous rocks of Britain. III. The Upper Chalk of England. Mem. Geol. Surv. England Wales. London: HMSO.Google Scholar
Kennedy, W. J. & Juignet, P. 1974. Carbonate banks and slump beds in the Upper Cretaceous (Upper Turonian–Santonian) of Haute Normandie, France. Sedimentology 21 142.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kennedy, W. J. & Garrison, R. E. 1975. Morphology and genesis of nodular chalks and hardgrounds in the Upper Cretaceous of southern England. Sedimentology 22 311–86.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lombard, A. 1956. Géologie sédimentaire. Les séries marines. Paris: Masson.Google Scholar
Strahan, A. 1891. On a phosphatic chalk with Belemnitella quadrata at Taplow. Q. Jl geol. Soc.London 47 356–67.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Strahan, A. 1892. Phosphatic chalk. Nat. Sci. 1 284–7.Google Scholar
Strahan, A. 1895. Phosphatic chalk at Taplow, Berks. Geol. Mag. 2, 336.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Strahan, A. 1896. On a phosphatic chalk with Holaster planus at Lewes. Q. Jl geol. Soc. Lond. 52 463–73.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tabatabaï, C. M. 1977. La sédimentation phosphatée (ses modialités): Pétrographie et sédimentologie des craies phosphatées du nord du Bassin de Paris. Thèse Diplome de docteur de 3e cycle, L'Université Pierre et Marie Curie, Paris.Google Scholar
Ternet, Y. 1969. Carte géologique de Fécamp (1/50,000) et notice explicative. Publ. Bur. Rech. Géol. Miniéres, Paris.Google Scholar
White, H. J. O. 1907. The geology of the country around Hungerford and Newbury. Mem. Geol. Surv. England Wales, 267. London: HMSO.Google Scholar
White, H. J. O. 1909. The geology of the country around Basingstoke. Mem. Geol. Surv. England Wales, 284. London: HMSO.Google Scholar
White, H. J. O. & Treacher, L. 1906. The phosphatic chalk of Winterbourne and Boxford (Berkshire). Q. Jl geol. Soc. Lond. 62 499522.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Willcox, N. R. 1953. The origin of beds of phosphatic chalk with special reference to those at Taplow, England. In Origine des gisements de phosphates de chaux. Congr. Geol. Int. 19th, Algiers. Fasc. 11, pp. 119133.Google Scholar
Woodroof, P. B. 1980. Field Meeting: The Chalk of the Newbury and Lambourne area, Berkshire, 25 June 1978. Proc. Geol. Ass. (in press).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wooldridge, S. W. & Linton, D. L. 1955. Structure, surface and drainage in south-east England. London: Philip.Google Scholar